In a first, Panjab University’s book fair kicks off

From textbooks to religious texts to biographies, the Panjab University Book Fair, being organised for the first time in the city, has all in its kitty.

The first day of the fair saw a large number of students visiting various stalls put up next to the university’s central library

“The book fair features a wide variety of books on all kinds of subjec, be it scientific disciplines, liberal arts and novels are available at subsidised rates,” said PU librarian Raj Kumar.

Besides selling books, the various publication houses have also come up with activities to engage the crowd visiting the book fair. The British Council has decided to hold a quiz each day and the winners will be awarded attractive prizes.

Besides, book lovers can also register themselves and avail membership.

Some controversial texts that caught a lot of media attention recently such as The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjay Baru and One life is Not Enough by Natwar Singh, are also availble at the book fair among others.The Tale of Two’ by photographer Raghu, books on spirituality and religion are some of the other books to watch out for.

Over 40 publication houses including international publishers have put up stalls at the fair and a variety of talks and events will be held over the course of this event till August 29.

PU Dean University Instructions (DUI), professor AK Bhandari inaugurated the five-day long event outside the Panjab University central library. Later, PU vice chancellor Arun Kumar Grover also visited the fair.

He said the book fair was very well organised adding that it could be made an annual feature hopefully.Officials said that more than 2000 visited the fair includingfaculty, students and others on the first day.

A PGI blood donation van was stationed at the venue to encourage volunatry blood donation.